Cleaning MO
by Skylark Starflower
Summary: He was dirty. She decided to clean him.


Author's Note/Disclaimer: I don't own WALL-E, it belongs to Pixar/Disney. I'm just borrowing the characters for a little fun, is all. Liz is mine, however. If you want to borrow her for some reason, just ask, please.

So…yeah, this was inspired by something that I somehow failed to notice or pick up on the first couple times I watched the movie. Then one day I was all like, 'hey, wait just one minute!' And that realization resulted in this. It's only supposed to be cutesy friendship fluff, so if you read more into it than that, it's your own damn fault. I still rewrote an entire section of the fic due to the results of a test read. Filthy minds, the lot of ya! You know who you are. Bah. Anyway, here ya are. Have fun.

"**Cleaning M-O"  
****By Skylark Starflower  
****Started February 15****th****, 2009  
****Finished February 21****st****, 2009**

The little M-O unit would have skipped for joy had he been able. As it was, he made his way back to the Axiom by means of a strange series of hops and twists. He couldn't recall a time before when he had been so happy.

Little more than a few days had passed since the arrival of the filthy little robot that had changed everything. Since M-O's first encounter with robot designated as WALL-E, the cleaning droid's world had never been the same. He had disobeyed rules, defied his directive and, in the end, helped save everyone, making some lifelong friends along the way.

After the Axiom's arrival on Earth and the favorable resolution to the events that had lead to the star liner's return, M-O had been staying at WALL-E's trailer on the derelict highway, keeping company with the happy couple and WALL-E's band of reject bots. Now, however, he needed to return to the ship, not because he wanted to leave, but simply because his power unit was back in his kiosk on the star liner, and he needed recharging.

Humming Put On Your Sunday Clothes, M-O scooted through a throng of humans busily digging in the ground, planting seeds. He paid them no attention, focused on where he was going. So focused was he in fact, that he failed to notice the arms reaching out towards him.

Stubby little fingers hooked under his shoulder joints, lifting him from the ground. With a startled squeak, M-O turned his head around to see who had picked him up. A young human girl, maybe about fourteen years old, smiled back at him.

"Hello, little guy!" she exclaimed cheerfully. "Aren't you cute!"

M-O narrowed his eyes in annoyance. He didn't appreciate being treated like some kind of pet. He squirmed, trying to get free, but the girl only tightened her grip.

"It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you."

Still gripping M-O by the arms, she turned towards the Axiom and began the slow trek by foot to the ship. M-O whined in irritation, not enjoying the bouncy ride.

"So, what's your name, then?" the girl asked, making small talk as she headed to a location as yet unknown to the little robot. Without waiting for a reply, she twisted M-O about to look for his name stamp. "M-O unit 101, huh? That's adorable! My name is Liz."

With a small bounce, Liz got a better grip on the cleaning bot, chubby arms wrapped around his boxy middle. M-O stopped struggling, letting out an electronic sigh. It was clear that the girl wasn't going to put him down any time soon, and he still had no idea where they were going.

The sudden stop surprised him, and he glanced about, wanting to know where they were. It was a hallway, doors to passenger cabins stretching away into the distance. The only difference between this area and any other on the ship was that the wall had a mirror. It meant nothing to him, so he waited to see if Liz would explain.

"Have a look!" was all she said, holding him up by his shoulders once more.

Scanning the mirror, M-O saw nothing unusual, his sensors picking up no traces of foreign contaminants. He still had no idea what Liz was up to.

She laughed and shook her head. "No, no! Don't check the mirror, check yourself!"

M-O blinked, but then decided to try it anyway. Bouncing his sensor signals off the mirror and back to himself, he took a good look at himself for the first time in several days.

He completely freaked.

In his single minded quest to clean WALL-E, he had failed to notice just how filthy he had allowed himself to get. No matter how much he had changed over the course of the last few days, he was still the same little obsessive compulsive cleaning droid. His alarm light flashing, he started to squirm madly. He had to clean himself, and he had to do it NOW!

"Calm down, calm down," Liz chided jovially, bouncing the agitated robot once more. She started walking again as she continued to talk. "We're going to the Lido deck."

"Huh?" M-O turned to look at the girl, confusion and curiosity now overriding the spaz out. What could possibly be on the Lido deck that had anything to do with him being dirty? Settling down, he allowed her to continue carrying him down the halls, interested now in what she had in mind.

Even with a ride on the People Mover, the trip to the Lido deck still took a while. Finally reaching her destination, Liz set the little robot on the floor. "Wait right there, okay?" she asked before walking off. He did as asked, glancing about, taking in his surroundings as he waited for her to return.

For some reason, she had placed M-O beside the pool. It had opened back up again a day or two after landing, though no one really used it. There wasn't a single human who knew how to swim now, and most were too busy resetting the Earth to learn. Not to mention far too plump to do more than simply float.

Liz returned shortly, towels in hand. She must have gotten them from one of the carts strategically placed around the area.

"Sorry I don't have a bucket or a sponge, but," and Liz shrugged, "I honestly don't know where to get those. So! This'll have to do." She knelt down beside the pool and dipped one of the towels in the water. As she did so, M-O finally realized what she intended to do.

He had never been washed before, indeed had never needed to be. He had in no way been meant to leave his station on the landing bay of the Axiom, and his directive, cleaning the EVE probes once a year, by no means afforded him the chance to really get dirty. It was only because he had broken the rules, followed WALL-E about the ship and gone on a romp through the Axiom's trash bay that he had gotten so grubby.

No one but their creator really knew why the robots on the Axiom had been given a network of sensors to imitate the human nervous system. While M-O didn't feel the same way as a human would, he could tell when something touched him. The soft towel on his back, wet with lukewarm pool water, was a new but not unwelcome feeling.

"Lift your arms, please?" Liz asked, trying to get at the mess on M-O's front. The robot did as asked, and she proceeded to scrub at the biggest splotch of muck on his front. He had almost obscured the name stamp on his lower right with filth.

M-O made a happy chirruping noise as Liz continued to wash him, the whole affair a new and enjoyable experience for the cleaning droid. The girl giggled, wiping layers of grime from the little bot, the once clean towel darkening with collected dirt.

"Enjoying this, are ya? Well, we're almost done now." She wiped his arms and the sides of his head, although avoiding his eye screen. It was partly because it didn't need cleaning, but mostly because she was thinking in terms of a human, and no human ever liked getting water in their eyes.

Putting down the wet, dirty towel, she grabbed the second one and began to fluff M-O dry. It was another sensation altogether new to him, almost like being tickled. Liz was the first, human or robot, to ever hear M-O giggle. After a moment, she stopped and removed the towel.

"Well, there you go! All clean now… Okay, as clean as I could get you. Some of those old water spots just didn't want to come off."

It was strange, but M-O found he didn't much mind knowing he wasn't completely spotless. Only days ago he would have insisted on immaculate perfection, but now it didn't matter.

Liz stood, giving M-O a friendly pat on the head. Smiling, she said, "I suppose you'll want to go rejoin your friends now. Off with you."

M-O didn't leave. He looked up at the young human, wanting to ask her a question, but unable to put it in words she would understand. He hadn't been built to interact with people, and as such had no real voice. Computerized blips wouldn't mean much to a person.

He looked down after a moment, feeling forlorn. He tapped his scrub brush on the floor lightly, unable to think of any way to communicate what he wanted.

Liz noticed his odd behavior. "What's the matter? Don't you want to go back to your friends?"

M-O nodded. He did want to go back, but there was still something he wanted to know before he left. He tapped his scrub brush on the floor again and looked up at Liz, hoping perhaps she would ask the right question.

"You still want something?" Liz was beginning to see what M-O was trying to do. She imagined it was difficult to have a conversation when both sides spoke a different language, but at least M-O could understand English even if he couldn't really speak it.

When he nodded again, she asked her next question. "Did I miss a spot?"

The reply was a shake of his head. Liz fell silent for a moment, trying to think of a possible question that might answer his problem, but after a while, she just shrugged apologetically. "I'm sorry, I can't figure it out."

M-O let out a disappointed whine and decided to make one last effort. Doing his best to point at her, he looked up again and tried to say her name. "Lisss."

The zed came out as more of a hiss, his sound system not liking that noise at all, but it was close enough for the girl to get the point. She seemed slightly taken aback. "You want to stay with me?"

He nodded, but then shook his head, hoping she would understand. She did. "Oh! Yeah, you can come visit me anytime!"

Liz couldn't help herself, reaching over to wrap her arms about his head in a hug. M-O squealed in sudden shock, but quickly warmed up to it, his eyes two happy little lines. He had never in his life expected to befriend a human, especially since he had rarely seen one until now, since his first activation literally hundreds of years ago.

Liz released him after a moment and stood back up. "I guess both of us have places we need to be now, huh? I shouldn't keep you any longer, but yeah, come see me whenever you want! Maybe next time I might even be able to find a bucket and sponge or something and give you a proper wash! Heck, bring your friends, too! I'd love to meet them!"

M-O bleeped out an affirmative, nodding enthusiastically. Waving his scrub brush in a manner he hoped would convey a farewell gesture, he began to scoot across the Lido deck to a hall that would take him back to his kiosk. He still needed a recharge.

Liz watched the little bot go, waving back until he disappeared, though she could hear the echoes as he began to hum again. She couldn't help laughing. For a robot built to do nothing but clean, he sure was a cute little guy.

**The End**


End file.
